The #newAmerican: AAnother new livery?

Last week when American Airlines CEO Tom Horton and US Airways CEO Doug Parker got together in Dallas for the joint press conference to announce the merger, Andrea Ahles of the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram asked, “Will you keep the new livery that American unveiled a few weeks ago?”

American’s CEO Tom Horton stepped in with a reply:

“It looks like something you would design if you were going to put American and US Airways together. But it is a new look. We are rolling it out very quickly. In fact, we have 60 new airplanes coming this year that will be delivered with the new livery. … And I think it’s a great presentation of the new American going forward.”

I took it to mean that it was probably definite.

Well, it may be that it’s definitely probable.

Some time after the press conference both CEOs go together to answer questions at an internal video conference for employees of both airlines and the question came up again.

“I haven’t seen the work they’ve done to come up with the branding they have, but I know they spent a lot of time on it, and they’re proud of it, so I don’t want to prejudge one way or another. I just want — that’s a detail that still needs to be worked out, and one that we’ll work out together.”

Comments

Let’s hope they decide before they paint the new (not the new new) livery on 150 aircraft. Considering the fact that they are technically competitors for the next 6 months, I wonder how much joint planning they are allowed to do.

I once worked for a company that was being bought out by a competitor. On our last day as the old company the district manger fired a supervisor because he did something the “new company way” a day before the actual takeover. The new company rehired him the next day.